Abstract
The primary tasks of systematic botany are to explore, describe and classify the flora of the world, thus providing an efficient information storage and retrieval system for plants, plant products, and plant conservation. Work on regional Floras has been prioritized, but from both scientific and practical points of view it would be better to concentrate on monographic work. Inventories followed by monographic studies are urgently needed also to facilitate rational activities for biodiversity conservation. While the herbaria of the world are per se important databases, the use and networking of computers enormously facilitate stock-taking of the global plant resources for all purposes.
Résumé
La systématique botanique a comme tâches primordiales l’exploration, la description et la classification de la flore du monde, ce qui implique un stockage de l’information et un système de consultation efficaces pour les plantes, les produits végétaux et la conservation des plantes. On a donné la priorité à l’étude des flores régionales, mais tant d’un point de vue scientifique que pratique, il serait plus avisé de se concentrer sur des études monographiques. Des inventaires suivis d’études monographiques sont également d’une urgente nécessité pour promouvoir une action rationnelle dans le domaine de la conservation de la biodiversité. Cependant que les herbiers du monde représentent par essence même d’importantes banques de données, l’utilisation des ordinateurs et leur interconnexion facilitent énormément le stockage des données concernant l’ensemble des ressources végétales, quels qu’en soient les usages.
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Hedberg, O. (1996). Monographs, databases and biodiversity conservation. In: van der Maesen, L.J.G., van der Burgt, X.M., van Medenbach de Rooy, J.M. (eds) The Biodiversity of African Plants. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0285-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0285-5_1
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